How to Create a System of Continuous Learning

Lifelong learning is an approach to education based on the continuous acquisition of new knowledge and skills. Lifelong learning is no longer just a fashion or fad but a means of survival in a rapidly changing world. What was relevant yesterday is now obsolete. What is in demand is the ability to switch quickly and learn new things. Keeping up with the times can be helped by constant, systematic training. In this article, together with PaperHelp will talk about how to set up a system of self-education, make learning your habit, and master new knowledge faster and more effectively.

1. Make a list of topics and skills you would like to learn and rank them by priority

The first and most crucial step in creating a self-study system is to understand precisely what you want to learn first. Make a shortlist of topics you would like to delve into, for example, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies, modern/classical architecture, etc. Think about and write down the skills you plan to learn, for example, coding, profiling, sushi cooking, archery, foreign languages.

Get your priorities right.

Once you’ve decided exactly what you’re going to study, you should rank the items on your list. You need to understand what will be at the top of the pyramid. To prioritize, ask yourself a few questions, such as: “will this skill help my career?”, “how passionate am I about this topic?” or “how much time and effort will it take to master it?”

It’s handy to do this in a spreadsheet and rate each item on a 10-point scale relative to all the criteria, or you can rank them intuitively. Such a spreadsheet will help you decide faster.

You will probably want to cross a few items off your list during the evaluation process if they are not currently important to your career, are not engaging enough, or are too time-consuming to master. Don’t forget about the Pareto principle because too bloated a list won’t allow you to focus on learning correctly, and you don’t have enough energy and time for everything. It’s worth limiting the number of skills you study in parallel to at least three, so you’ll be sure that you can pay enough attention to them and fully concentrate on self-education.

2. Figure out how you learn best

The next step is to identify the learning style to help you learn new knowledge faster and more effectively.

Neil Fleming and Colleen Mills have proposed the following classification of the main VARK learning strategies:

• visual (V),
• auditory (A),
• verbal or digital (R),
• kinesthetic (K).

Accordingly, visual people are better at absorbing information in a graphic form: visualization, diagrams, and infographics are essential.

Audiologists perceive new information more effectively by hearing, which means that their main tools are podcasts, live lectures, or audiobooks.

Verbal strategy implies presenting information through a written text in letters and signs, which means that books and notes are indispensable in this case. Kinestheticians are best helped in mastering skills by practical actions. It is vital for them to touch everything, to feel on their own experience.

Of course, in reality, when learning, people use a combination of several strategies. However, one usually prevails over the others. Many people nowadays choose the video format for learning, and it is pretty effective for most people because it often includes all styles of presentation except the kinesthetic.

3. Find the right resources for learning

What do people usually do when they want to learn about something? That’s right, they go to Google and type in something like “programming for beginners” or “how to learn to program.” With this approach, you are highly likely to come across poor-quality material or spend time learning ancient techniques.

There is a more reliable and convenient way. Find a person who has already studied this area of knowledge or has mastered the skill you need. It can be someone you know or someone recommended by someone from the network. Take advantage of his experience not to reinvent the wheel and not make silly mistakes. Ask him to recommend you a few proven paid or free resources to help you learn.

Of course, what works for one person, even a very reputable one, won’t necessarily work for you. Experiment and try out a few options based on your preferences.

4. Make a class schedule.

Scheduling is our everything, especially in a field like education. You can’t control your education if you don’t know what you will study and when. You probably have work and lots of other things in your life that you need to make time for, so you can’t do without a precise schedule. And sometimes you feel like you don’t have time to study at all during the day, but you don’t. Find an hour or at least 20 minutes a day and devote them to learning, each of us is able. To do this, you have to sacrifice watching another TV series or forget about social networking for a while. It is also possible to find time when you do not do anything, such as breaks at work, standing in traffic jams, queues, etc. Nowadays, you don’t need a large classroom and a personal teacher to study; you often need a smartphone.

5. Find training partners. Or better yet, a mentor.

Although it is now possible to study alone, it is more effective to do it in a company. There are a lot of advantages: responsibility to a partner gives you additional motivation, you can discuss unclear points with each other and, explaining something to another person, you will better understand and remember the topic.

However, if you are learning independently or with a peer, you will not get feedback. You won’t be able to be entirely sure that you’re doing everything right: you’ll make mistakes without noticing the catch. The way out is to look for a mentor. He doesn’t necessarily have to monitor your every move (self-education, after all). A mentor will check you when necessary, find flaws and give advice. That should be enough.

#6 Set up your social media for learning.

Even if you’re determined to be as productive as possible and become a digital minimalist, you still won’t give up using social media altogether. And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially if your newsfeed helps you educate yourself.

Subscribe to those pages, channels, and accounts that post quality content on a topic of interest to you, and don’t forget to read/watch/listen. Spend your time in social networks in a helpful way.

It won’t hurt your systematic approach to learning at all. Short posts and videos will help you stay in the right environment at all times, which is very important for our brain, which quickly forgets what it doesn’t use. Educational content will allow you always to be up-to-date and learn something new every day.

7. Share your knowledge and experience

“The man who says he knows what he thinks but can’t express it usually doesn’t know what he thinks,” — Mortimer Adler.

Perhaps the best way to master a subject or skill is to teach it to others. This idea is the basis of Feynman’s famous method.

Richard Feynman was not only an outstanding physicist and Nobel Prize winner, but he was also a consummate teacher, able to explain the most complex theories literally on his fingers.

The Feynman Technique consists of 4 basic steps:

• Step 1 — define the topic you’re studying;
• Step 2 — try to tell it in simple words, based on the knowledge you already have. Make a special note of the places where you lack information or are unsure of it.
• Step 3 — find the material you need, study it, and fill in the gaps.
• Step 4 — modify your explanation of the topic to fit the new information.

You can repeat steps 2–4 until your explanation is simple enough for any audience, even children. Of course, you don’t have to gather a real live audience at all. Your partner with whom you are learning is sufficient. You can also frame the material you know as an article/podcast/video for your blog. This method is also suitable because it allows you to reach a broad audience and get feedback, which significantly affects learning speed.

8. Repetition is the mother of learning

By taking advantage of all of the above tips, you can probably successfully master something on your list, given the excellent organization of the process, as well as the necessary diligence and patience. However, at this point, the system of continuous learning cannot be considered wholly fine-tuned. The fact is that all acquired knowledge is sooner or later forgotten if it is not used. Moreover, according to the forgetting curve of Ebbinghaus, after a month, you will remember only 10–20% of the information learned. If you don’t want all that effort to waste, you will have to repeat it.

Expand your syllabus and add time to review what you have learned. It won’t take long, but it will give you a guarantee that the knowledge stays with you.

9. Don’t Stop and Keep Going

It is a vital point of this article. It’s critical because we’re not just talking about learning. We’re talking about a system of continuous learning. At the very beginning, you have made a plan of 1–3 points, and this, of course, is not the limit of your dreams, but only a volume of tasks for a certain period, for example, for a month or a quarter.

After its completion, you can make a new plan and learn more, and so constantly. Continuous growth is precisely what you are striving for.

Correlate your educational goals with your real goals. New knowledge and skills are just one tool to achieve them.

Over time, constant learning will become a habit. It will become your way of life. You won’t even notice that you are constantly learning by reading books or posts on social networks, watching videos on YouTube, or listening to podcasts at home, at work, in transport, in queues, in unique courses. Just take every opportunity and keep learning.

Summary

So, the following steps will help you set up a system of continuous learning:

• Decide on the subjects and skills you want to learn;
• Choose from them 1–3 items that you will learn in one period of time;
• Determine for yourself the most effective learning strategy;
• Find the resources you need; consult with knowledgeable people;
• Create a regular schedule;
• Find partners and mentors who will give you feedback;
• Make social media your allies; share knowledge with others using the Feynman technique;
• Don’t forget to repeat what you’ve learned from time to time;
• And, of course, keep learning.